NORTH SHORE BOOM
INDUSTRIAL North Shore has become a new contender for Geelong’s hottest waterfront property market after a rambling four-bedroom house sold for $325,000 over expectations at auction.
The 1050sq m property at 33 The Esplanade, North Shore, sold for $1.175 million on Saturday. The house is part of the 350m waterfront strip opposite Moorpanyal Park that enjoys uninterrupted views across Corio Bay to Geelong’s CBD skyline.
Hayeswinckle, East Geelong agent Stacey Hayes said while developers and homebuyers were among the four bidders in the mix, the winning bidder had no plans for the property at this stage.
“We had a couple of developers in the mix, one or two families relocating from Melbourne that could have a lovely big family home and an investor,” Ms Hayes said.
She said the buyer lived lo- cally and owned other property in the area.
“It’s a great strip. They’re all good sized blocks and they’ve got waterfront access,” she said. “You can’t get in under $2.5 million really for a semi(detached) up to $5 million on the other side (of the bay).”
It’s the third North Shore home to break $1 million this year, including a record $1.28 million in March.
But prices fall away the minute buyers step beyond The Esplanade, where sales this year range from $350,000 to $685,000, CoreLogic records show.
North Shore’s median house price of $491,500 has risen 46 per cent in 10 years.
The increase is below other once unfashionable bayside industrial suburbs like Altona and Newport on the edge of Melbourne’s inner west.
Newport house prices climbed 52 per cent from $473,000 in 2007 to a touch under $1 million, while in Altona, the price rose 55 per cent to $850,000.
North Shore’s four-block residential enclave is surrounded on three sides by the city’s heaviest industrial areas, including woodchipping and fertiliser production and a railway yard.
Planning laws restrict the creation of home blocks less than 500sq m without a development application, but that hasn’t stopped buyers from building two-storey contemporary homes along the waterfront, or subdividing bigger blocks in the suburb.
At the same time, a plan mooted by Federal MP Richard Marles and Geelong councillor Anthony Aitken is pushing to create a walking path connecting Corio’s Stead Park to the North Shore foreshore.